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Chairmanship

Angelino Alfano, OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs addressing the OSCE Permanent Council, Vienna, 11 January 2018

OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2018 Angelino Alfano (© OSCE/Micky Kroell)

Minister for Foreign Affairs of the presiding country assumes the duties of so called "Chairman in Office" (CiO). His primary task is to coordinate the decision-making process of the Organization and all its current activities. He or she is therefore formally responsible for creation of the agenda and organization of activities of all OSCE decision-making bodies. He or she chairs the Ministerial Council meetings as well.

The role of CiO is distributed on the annual basis. The decision on OSCE Chairmanship is adopted by Ministerial Council on the basis of consensus as a rule two years before assuming the duties. The Czech Republic presided the OSCE in 1992, at that time still as the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic.